Lord of the Rings: Return of the King demo

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Editors' Review

The excitement surrounding the initial release of the Lord of the Rings movies has settled down, yet the high-quality video games from the series keep coming with each installment. The third chapter in the trilogy lets gamers battle Sauron's forces in areas based on major scenes from the movie while engaged in a quest to cast the One Ring into the fiery depths of Mt. Doom. The character and environmental graphics are superb, and because battles can devolve into button-mashing, you'll need to practice the fighting system if you want to defeat your stronger foes.

The full game offers the opportunity to play eight characters, and the demo version offers one level in which Gandalf must stem an invading horde to save the women and children of Minas Tirith. Only one level, with endless swarms of monsters, gives you a good feel for the game. The intuitive movement and attack controls are easy to learn, but we were unable to find any way to change the camera angles, which sometimes left poor Gandalf stuck in a corner with nasty creatures. Interactive environmental effects such as exploding castle walls that crush monsters are very cool, and there are plenty of impressive cinematic effects that add to the game's immersive atmosphere.

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Publisher's Description

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From EA Games:
Return to Middle-earth in the only video game based on the epic final chapter of the highly acclaimed The Lord of the Rings movie trilogy. Developed using the same digital assets as the films, the Return of the King demo re-creates in stunning detail the final events of the War of the Ring. Become the heroes who determine the fate of Middle-earth as you traverse the haunted Paths of the Dead, defend Minas Tirith from the onslaught of thousands of Sauron's minions, and even play co-op multiplayer with a friend as you march against the impenetrable Black Gates of Mordor. The fate of Middle-earth is in your hands.

GANDALF is a great character. good graphics, simple storyline, easy controls. good for high stress levels (in my opinion) but dont play too much or you get stressed over the game as well. buy the full game (i think its a platinum now, so thats Ã‚Â£20-ish)

Cons

not much. takes a bit of time to get used to controls. the video shots get annoying after a while, but once you finish the level you can skip them. all worth it in the end.

This is a great game, but very difficult, and there's nothing in the Read Me about how to play it or what any of the icons mean. After searching through various walkthroughs, here's most of what you need to know:

Use speed attacks on the guys with swords. For the short guys with spears and shields, and the two-club champions, you need to whack 'em with the fierce attack to loosen up their armor before hitting them with fast attacks.

Parry a lot. Especially with the two-club guys - parry, hit 'em hard, and repeat. You'll also follow up with the Killing Blow, where you stab 'em on the ground. If you don't, they'll just get right back up.

The Range Weapon is his staff, which can shoot bolts of energy, larger ones depending on how long you hold down the key. But you need to be clear of enemies to use it, and I haven't found it very effective.

The Action command is to throw the spears. They're in the campfires - one pair to the left and one to the right. You're supposed to use them on the huge trolls, but I haven't figured out how to aim the dang things once you've picked one up. Also, if an enemy is near you, they'll simply knock it out of your hand.

The green jars the goons drop are health packs. The green line at the bottom of your read-out is your health - if it gets down, and to red, get clear or grab a health pack. The thing is, they vanish after a few moments.

The circular graph shows how effective you are in hitting your opponents. If you hit a lot in a row, or parry a lot, it goes white, to Perfect Mode, which racks up points and (what matters for the demo) makes your hits stronger. But don't get cocky - it ain't God Mode.

In the end, it took me twenty attempts, spread over a week, to beat it, and that was mostly by hiding in the corner once the trolls showed up. It's a beautiful game, with great graphics and effects and music, but extremely frustrating when you first start it up and don't know what anything means.

This game is really awesome... all of those who are lord of the rings movie fan, must buy this game and play it.. One of the best rpg game I have ever played. Graphics are awesome and looks almost as real as movie.. original music and voices of characters from movie which encourages your more and more. Game is really challenging. Thing I like about this game is that you are not able to enable cheat until you pass whole game.. but once you pass, you have bunch of cheats and bonus levels and interviews.. although demo is too short but believe me full game is not short as you think.. Some levels are so hard that it will take you weeks before you will pass it. Do not judge game through this demo because demo does not give detail about full game and ya this demo is not easy either but it's not hard either.. anyways enjoy the game and I bet you will enjoy every bit of it

Cons

Nothing really accept you need atleast following to play this. 256mb ram, windows xp(strongly recomended), Plentium III or higher, and especially graphic card.. although it doesnot require much ram, you must have a graphic card that supports lighting, rendering and other stuff.. Onboard Intel graphic card will not work for this one.. even though you have 128mb of video ram(only 32mb required for game)

This demo version is great in both graphics and sound. (boy, I love that Lord of the Rings melody on the title screen). For me, this demo is the whole retail version of the game, since playing through the whole actual game would take too long. Watch the movie, then fight a battle...tasty!!!

Note: Make sure your computer has a graphics card of at least 32MB before you download! (64MB recommended)

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